MP describes police chase after asylum-seeking children ‘collected’ from hotel – as 200 youngsters confirmed missing
An MP has described a police chase which took place after two children were “collected” from a hotel housing asylum-seeking children.
Hove MP Peter Kyle said officers in his constituency pursued a car that had picked up two children from outside the Home Office approved accommodation after concerns about what was happening.
It comes after the government confirmed that about 200 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children remain missing after initially being housed in hotels since July 2022.
There have been reports that dozens of youngsters have been abducted from hotels in the Brighton and Hove area.
Speaking about one of the hotels used to house child asylum seekers in his constituency, Mr Kyle told the Commons: “Just last year, Sussex Police pursued a car that had collected two children from outside this hotel.
“When they managed to get the car to safety, they released two child migrants and they arrested one of the members who was driving it – who was a gang leader who was there to coerce the children into crime.”
Responding to an urgent question, immigration minister Robert Jenrick told the Commons today that out of 4,600 unaccompanied children who have entered the UK since July 2021, 440 have gone missing at some point, with only half of them returning.
He told the House: “Two hundred children remain missing, 13 of whom are under 16 years old, and only one is female.
“When any child goes missing, a multi-agency missing persons protocol is mobilised alongside the police and relevant local authority to establish their whereabouts and to ensure that they are safe.
“Many of those who have gone missing are subsequently traced and located. Of the unaccompanied asylum-seeking children still missing, 88% are Albanian nationals; the remaining 12% are from Afghanistan, Egypt, India Vietnam, Pakistan and Turkey.”
Peter Kyle described a police chase after two children were ‘collected’ from a hotel
Children ‘being dumped by Home Office’
Mr Kyle, a Labour MP, said he was aware of 76 children who had vanished from one hotel.
It comes after an investigation by The Observer at the weekend reported that dozens of unaccompanied child migrants had been kidnapped by criminal gangs in Brighton.
Mr Kyle said: “The uncomfortable truth for us is if one child who was related to one of us in this room went missing, the world would stop.
“But in the community I represent, a child has gone missing, then five went missing, then a dozen went missing, then 50 went missing and currently today 76 are missing – and nothing is happening.”
Mr Jenrick said he had not seen evidence of children being kidnapped but the allegations were “extremely serious” and he would “continue to make inquiries”.
Caroline Lucas called the numbers of missing children ‘sickening’
In the meantime, he said he would like Mr Kyle to join him on a visit to the hotel so they could review the situation.
Brighton MP Caroline Lucas accused the Home Office of “dumping vulnerable children” in hotels then shirking in their responsibility to look after them.
‘Frankly, it is sickening’
She asked how many of the missing children have been “kidnapped, trafficked, put into forced labour” and said it was “not clear” whether the Home Office was “prepared to take legal as well as practical responsibility” to find them.
“I was told before Christmas that government lawyers were deliberating over their ultimate legal responsibility. We need to know the outcome today,” she said.
Ms Lucas called for a special operation to find the missing children adding: “This feels like the plight of girls in Rotherham who were treated like they didn’t matter. And frankly, it is sickening.”
She added: “We are not asking him to detain children. We are asking the Home Office to apply some basic safeguarding so we can keep them safe”.
Mr Jenrick insisted cases of asylum-seeking children going missing from Home Office accommodation are treated in “exactly the same way as any young person who goes missing”.
Yvette Cooper, Labour’s spokesperson on immigration, accused the government of “a total dereliction of duty that is putting children at risk”.
The children’s commissioner for England, Rachel de Souza, said the reports of children disappearing from hotels “have highlighted, once again, the vulnerability of these children, who are in limbo, with a concerted group of people determined to exploit them.”
She said in a letter to the Home Office: “I am concerned for the safety of this group of children whose vulnerability is exacerbated by not speaking English, many of whom have no support network and are not aware of their rights.”
World
Body of missing rabbi Zvi Kogan found in UAE – as Israeli PM says he was murdered in ‘antisemitic terror incident’
The COP29 climate talks have reached a last ditch deal on cash for developing countries, pulling the summit back from the brink of collapse after a group of countries stormed out of a negotiating room earlier.
The slew of deals finally signed off in the small hours of Sunday morning in Azerbaijan includes one that proved hardest of all – one about money.
Eventually the more than 190 countries in Baku agreed a target for richer polluting countries such as the UK, EU and Japan to drum up $300bn a year by 2035 to help poorer nations both curb and adapt to climate change.
It is a far cry from the $1.3trn experts say is needed, and from the $500bn that vulnerable countries like Uganda had said they would be willing to accept.
But in the end they were forced to, knowing they could not afford to live without it, nor wait until next year to try again, when a Donald Trump presidency would make things even harder.
Bolivia’s lead negotiator Diego Pacheco called it an “insult”, while the Marshall Islands’ Tina Stege said it was “not nearly enough, but it’s a start”.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell said: “This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country.
“No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work still to do. So this is no time for victory laps.”
The funding deal was clinched more than 24 hours into overtime, and against what felt like all the odds.
The talks were rocked from the start by the incoming presidency of climate denier Mr Trump, the moment Argentina’s team were recalled back to Buenos Aires by their right-wing president and a controversial letter that sent shockwaves through the United Nations.
Pic: AP
The fraught two weeks of negotiations pitted the anger of developing countries who are footing the bill for more dangerous weather that they did little to cause, against the tight public finances of rich countries.
A relieved Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, climate envoy for Panama, said there is “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Just hours ago, the talks almost fell apart as furious vulnerable nations stormed out of negotiations in frustration over that elusive funding goal.
They were also angry with oil and gas producing countries, who stood accused of trying to dilute aspects of the deal on cutting fossil fuels.
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Climate-vulnerable nations storm out of talks
The UN talks work on consensus, meaning everyone has to agree for a deal to fly.
A row over how to follow up on last year’s pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels” was left unresolved and punted into next year, following objections from Chile and Switzerland for being too weak.
A draft deal simply “reaffirmed” the commitment but did not dial up the pressure in the way the UK, EU, island states and many others here wanted.
Saudi Arabia fought the hardest against any step forward on cutting fossil fuels, the primary cause of climate change that is intensifying floods, drought and fires around the world.
Governments did manage to strike a deal on carbon markets at COP29, which has been 10 years in the making and will allow countries to trade emissions cuts.
‘Not everything we wanted’
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The UK’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said the deal is “not everything we or others wanted”, but described it as a “step forward”.
“It’s a deal that will drive forward the clean energy transition, which is essential for jobs and growth in Britain and for protecting us all against the worsening climate crisis,” he added.
“Today’s agreement sends the signal that the clean energy transition is unstoppable.
“It is the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century and through our championing of it we can help crowd in private investment.”
Protesters at the summit in Baku. Pic: AP
Read more:
Azerbaijan president hails oil and gas as ‘gift from God’
UN climate summits ‘no longer fit for purpose’
The Azerbaijan team leading COP29 said: “Every hour of the day, we have pulled people together. Every inch of the way, we have pushed for the highest common denominator.
“We have faced geopolitical headwinds and made every effort to be an honest broker for all sides.”
At least 20 people have been killed and 66 injured in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.
Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dig through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.
The attack destroyed an eight-storey residential building and badly damaged several others around it in the Basta neighbourhood at 4am (2am UK time) on Saturday.
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut
The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack and has not commented on the casualties.
At least four bombs were dropped in the attack – the fourth targeting the city centre this week.
A separate drone strike in the southern port city of Tyre this morning killed two people and injured three, according to the state-run National News Agency.
The victims were Palestinian refugees from the nearby al Rashidieh camp who were out fishing, according to Mohammed Bikai, spokesperson for the Fatah Palestinian faction in the Tyre area.
Israel’s military warned residents today in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs that they were near Hezbollah facilities, which the army would target in the near future. The warning, posted on X, told people to evacuate at least 500 metres away.
The army said that over the past day it had conducted intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. It said it hit several command centres and weapons storage facilities.
Pic: AP
Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.
Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, at least 3,670 people have been killed in Israeli attacks there, with more than 15,400 wounded.
It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.
Read more:
No 10 indicates Netanyahu would be arrested
‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike
Meanwhile, six people, including three children and two women, were killed in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.
Some 44,176 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage.
US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.
Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.
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